KIA recovers over 1mln euros as court annuls ruling

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Tax agency’s collection was ‘incorrect’

KUWAIT CITY, May 23: The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) recovered an amount more than one million euros that had been withheld by the Spanish authorities as income tax on the profits of the authority, based on a ruling of the National Court in Madrid, which ruled that the Spanish Tax Agency’s collection of these amounts from Kuwait was “incorrect”, and accordingly ordered its return.

According to the Spanish “Europa Press” website, the National Court ordered the Spanish Ministry of Finance to return an amount of one million and 133 thousand euros to the Kuwait sovereign fund “The Kuwait Investment Authority”, and to cancel the decision of the Central Administrative Economic Court, which is affiliated with the Spanish Ministry of Finance, to impose the taxes based on the decision of the Spanish Tax Agency. In 2018, the Spanish Central Administrative Economic Court upheld the deduction of the amount by the Spanish Tax Agency as income tax for non-residents on its territory for the year 2011.

t had rejected a request submitted by the Kuwait Investment Authority to the court to be treated as a public company that is exempted from taxes according to Spanish law. The Kuwait Investment Authority submitted an appeal against this decision to the Administrative Court, which issued its ruling on April 28, according to which it canceled the tax settlement and the authority’s right to “restore the withheld amounts, with the interest of default since it was deposited in the state treasury”. In its appeal, the Kuwait Investment Authority denounced the discrimination it suffered due to tax deductions on the profits it obtained, indicating that it entered the Spanish market under the “principle of free movement of capital”. It had demanded tax treatment similar to that applied by Spanish entities registered in the public sector that are completely exempted from tax. By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff

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